A leader is like a gardener. A committed and devoted gardener carefully chooses his seeds. He thinks in terms of growing the plants and seeing that they are grown in to mighty trees so that generations after generations people can enjoy its shade and fruits.

It won’t be out of context to quote the famous saying about the people.

“If you want to plan for a year, plant corn;

If you want to plan for 3 years, plant a tree; 

If you want to plan for 10 years, plant people.”

Organizations are now realizing the importance of people because global competitiveness can be achieved not through the best technologies and well equipped plants but by effectively grooming the people and motivating employees to perform at global standards. As a result the human resources have acquired top position ine corporate agendas.

Leaders, the key Players

It goes without saying that for an effective way to enhance the performance of an organization, it’s the leader who makes a big difference.

It’s those leaders who act like a helmsmen and navigators and take the ship to  reach the safe shores are the key people in any organization in the new paradigm of business.

Leaders lead by example.

They say an organization is the lengthened shadow of one man. And that is the leader.

Leaders never hesitate to get their hands dirty.. They will not sit in the ivory towers. They may not be the most advanced and knowledgeable worker in the team, But mingling with the team members will increase the trust and confidence of the team members in the leader that goes a long way in taking the organization ahead.

They win the hearts of the internal customers first. 

Even if an organization manufactures the best of the products in the market, needs buyers for its products. Somebody has to buy the products.That is the customers. There are two types of customers. Internal customers and external customers. Internal customers are the employees of the organization. External customers are the buyers.

A real leader before embarking on the task of increasing the organization’s customer base will see to it that the internal customers are satisfied first. An internal customer who s satisfied will become a highly motivated person and he will go out all the way to work for the interests and objectives of the organization.

Leaders believe in Pulling not in pushing.

General Eisenhower used to demonstrate the role of a leader with the help of a string. Pull a string that’s kept on a table. It will follow in any direction you wish. And see what happens if the string is pushed. It won’t go anywhere.

Subconscious thoughts have a role to play.

Behind every habit forming there is an invisible hand of our Sub- conscious.No body knows about this better than an ideal leader. So he attempts at the very outset to help his people in developing a few good habits, the first one being, "Self confidence."

Ideal leaders allow their people working with them to cultivate the habit of taking their decisions. And its not all. The leader meets personally occasionally to discuss and analyze the decisions taken Such sessions are friendly without any official authoritarian air. These interactions erase the fear and hesitation and boosts self confidence.

Now coming to the significance of “Self – fulfilling prophecy”, let’s see how this works.

“Self– fulfilling prophecy”

The concept of Self-fulfilling is based on the theory that our subconscious thoughts play a key role in our actions and decisions. Simply put,, If I believe there is some truth in a thing, I will work out in the direction of my belief. The strong thoughts of my belief become actions.

The self- fulfilling prophecy is popularly known as ‘Pygmalion effect.’ This was named after the famous play ‘Pygmalion’ written by George Bernard Shaw. In the play Pygmalion. A rich man wanted to  have a statue of a lady made of marble in his garden. For the sculpting, he has appointed a sculptor Pygmalion. As the days went on, Pygmalion found the sculpture of the lady started turning in to a stunning beautiful lady. Overwhelmed by his success, he has developed an intense love towards the sculpture. Within few days, his love turned in to a belief that the sculpture is real. He started talking with the lifeless sculpture as if he was talking to a person in flesh and blood. Over a period, Pygmalion’s strong belief becomes a reality. The lady in the sculpture came out in flesh and blood. And they lived happily unto the end.

This is how a belief turned in to a reality. And if a leader succeeds in injecting self belief in the members of his team, the organization will never look back. This concept of self belief is not just restricted to an organization or an institute, it works anywhere. 

Brick by Brick.

Another most important trait that leader has to cultivate is to inject ‘Self esteem’ in the members of his team. But it should be remembered injecting Self esteem in the team cannot be done overnight. Building self respect is a habit forming process. Which has to be given due time.

The most effective way to start is, the leader must catch his men doing something good. Suppose, the leader sees an employee remained in the office doing his work one day even after office hours, the leader should remember and acknowledge the employee’s dedication at an opportune time. May be in a departmental morning meeting, in the presence of other employees and officers.  This works like magic. The employee will be happy that his worth has been recognized. And, he will make this trend as a habit. This makes the other employees follow the suit.

Applies to Parents too.

Parents can apply this rule to their children. A pat on the shoulder. A word f praise and see the glint in the eyes of the child. Parents need not mould the child. The child himself moulds himself.

Job satisfaction.

An extremely talented designer who was working as a visuliser in a corporate giant’s Public relations department was doing minor jobs related to advertising designing for many years. This has created a sort of dissatisfaction in the employee’s heart. He thought that he will be entrusted with challenging jobs which the management knew that he could do with ease. Naturally, the employee got dejected.

Once there was a financial crunch in the corporation, due to which the Public relations department’s yearly financial sanctions were cut drastically. With this, the management has decided to get all their jobs like advertising campaigns and other creative jobs locally with the in house talent.

This has become a boon to the frustrated visualiser. He has created corporate advertisements and other creative jobs in par with the professional standards of the advertising agencies. The icing on the cake was, the cost incurred was just a fraction of the cost that was being charged by the advertising agencies earlier. 

This  made the visuliser gain confidence on his talents. He felt the job he is doing has given him ‘Job satisfaction’ for the first time. It was not all. The Management has realized the truth that the departmental needs can be achieved locally.

An employee with Job satisfaction is simply unstoppable.

Take lead.

Teach discipline, not with an authoritative tone, But with setting an example. Discipline comes gradually in small steps. Till then the leader waits patiently.

Reaching office much earlier than the scheduled time. A last minute rush will increase the blood pressure. At the traffic signals there is a likelihood of delays. This creates anxious moments.

Suppose if the office starts at 9 am. But if the leader reaches office at 11 am, the staff which arrived at 9 am will utilize this opportunity and abuse it. In addition to this, how a late coming officer can reprimand a staff member who comes late?

Leader should make the employee taste of sweet success. This makes the employees hungry for success. Such employees vie with each other to prove their mettle. And in such times, new and innovative ideas crop up in the minds of the sincere employees.While doing this, a good leader also prepare the employee for failure and stumbling blocks. The leader while giving full freedom to the employee should keep an eye on the progress of the assignment assigned to him. Unless and otherwise needed the leader never interfere while the assigned job is progressing smoothly. If the leader scents of a failure in the process assures the employee that there is always a tomorrow.

An ideal leader shares his success with the other members of the team. In case of a failure, the leader takes the responsibility and magnanimously admits the faults. It should be remembered ideal leaders will never pass the buck and never tries to find a scapegoat. 

Whenever a failure takes place, he arranges a meeting and discusses the reasons for failure and will keep himself open for better suggestions from the employees.

Mistakes do happen.

A team is made up of humans. Humans commit mistakes. Wisdom lies in knowing the mistakes and rectifying them.

There is a saying, “Even the Chairman’s pencil has an eraser on it.”

Famous cubism painter Pablo Picasso says that a true artist is one who is willing to rectify mistakes and makes himself ready to erase his mistakes and restart even if they occur 100 times. 

Like mistakes humans have certain inherent weaknesses. Some of such weaknesses are laziness, greed, losing temper quickly so on and so forth. A good leader keeps a note of these weaknesses and makes a reasonable allowance to such weaknesses in an employee. While doing this, the leader should make the employee know that he is keeping a watch on the employee. This helps the employee to rectify and overcome his inherent weaknesses.

If the employee continues the same attitude and continues to take the advantage of the allowance given by his leader, he should be reprimanded first. Then even after this if there is no visible conscious effort in the employee to mend his ways, he should be shown the exit. 

Michelangelo  before embarking on the job of sculpting his world famous sculpture ‘David’, found the marble from which he has to carve out the sculpture was found to have a flaw. Many felt that it’s impossible to carve such a huge sculpture from the defective marble. But Michelangelo was very confident that the flaw in the marble is not deep. He removed a portion of the marble and checked it. He found the flaw did not spread deep in to the marble. What he suspected was right and proceeded ahead to carve out David, that made him immortal.

Now, a good leader also will act like Michelangelo. If there is a defect or a weakness in one of his employees, instead of ruling him outright, he will see that the defect is removed and uses the employee's other talents to his advantage.

Working together works.

An excellent Japanese quote says the entire essence and virtues of Team work.

Modern corporate houses believe that every work in an organization is a team work. A team work to succeed, one has to bear in mind the following basic points on which the entire concept depends.

Every member should contribute.

See this example. A very good football player is there. Individually he is incomparable. But he plays for himself. For his own records in that process he simply ignores the Team’s success. Such players are misfits in a team.

Similarly in corporate day to day activities if any member in the team fails to put that extra effort in tune with the team’s interests cannot work in a team. Such members should be discarded.

The message is very clear and loud that an idea must be very clearly understood and supported by each member of the team.

Another example to emphasize the importance of ‘Unity of thinking’ in a team is an Orchestra. Each member plays the notes assigned to him. And the total contribution of individuals should be able to lead to a sonorous symphony.

Equal sacrifice.

Lee Iacocca of Chrysler used to  take a paltry $1 as his salary per annum. This gesture has set an example. Such a case of exemplary sacrifice of a CEO sends the message across the corridors of the corporate offices that one should be prepared to sacrifice in one’s own limits for the sake of the welfare of the organization. Having shown his willingness to sacrifice Lee Iacocca, never faced any failure in getting a solid support from employees and from the unions. If the leader shows the way, employees are bound to follow him without an iota of doubt.

If the leader is exemplary, followers go to any length to prove that they are no less. A similar case of exemplary attitude can be seen in the army. A captain takes his food only after the soldier eats. It is applicable to any situation. It’s true in small families also.

Empathy.

If a team member has a problem, the leader sees the problem from his angle. And tries to solve the problem. The leader may or may not succeed in solving the problem of his Team member. But the team member will be satisfied that his leader tried to help him. This makes a big difference. A leader’s indifference towards the problems of the team member will not take the team ahead. 

Communication.

Ideal leaders are invariably good communicators. Team members will be more than happy to have clear and lucid messages expressed in simple language from their leader.

Cooperation.

 Ideal leaders do not simply wash off their hands after assigning the job to the team. Rather the leader goes to each and every member and helps in clearing the bottlenecks if there are any in the job.

Universal appeal.

All the above suggestions are not just restricted to an office or an organization. They have universal appeal. They can be used to build up an organization or to mould a family in to an ideal family. Because people are the common factors. If one wants to turn people in to committed people the above suggestions if followed religiously will give excellent results